Condemnations of musical superficiality really attack aesthetic progress itself.

Evidence

Among the most prominent of these are the charge of superficiality and that of a ‘cult of personality’. What is attacked is chiefly progress: social, essentially the specifically aesthetic. Intertwined with the forbidden allurements are sensual gaiety and differentiating consciousness. — Theodor W. Adorno, The Culture Industry, 69

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Mirrors the reader’s moral-panic articles: what looks like a critique of decadence is really a reaction against social and aesthetic progress.